Ashley no, no. There are two targets, MinTarget and ... eh, the other "Target" (can't recall exactly right now). I have an app uploaded and working in the Store and the recommended settings are left blank, which means it will work in both 10240 and 14393: http://i.imgur.com/rOhhYNh.png
I used 10240 as MinTarget and 14393 for the other Target.
And yes, you will have to update the SDK target version for every major release, but that will happen only twice a year (next one is Redstone 2, with will appear on March 2017, current one was Anniversary Update) Is that too much?
You just updated Cordova to correctly target iOS, why don't you update this one too? I see no reason not to.